Engaging Local Cultures by Christian Alliance for Orphans

Facilitator's Guide: Engaging Local Cultures

Workshop Discussions

companion primer

TRAINING MODULE Applied Research for Vulnerable Children + Families

Background The launch of the CAFO Global Network in 2018 offered new opportunities to initiate and facilitate collaborative projects with member networks around the world. Since that time, we’ve come together annually for Collaborate, a Summit experience for global leaders. Time and time again, we’ve heard from attendees that they would love to take the format and content of Collaborate back to their home countries and local leaders. Collaborate+ is just that! It is also an ideal opportunity to gather local champions for discussing key topics, sharing best practices, and developing local resources based on shared ideas. Our hope is that through local collaboration, champions may be equipped to better care for orphans and vulnerable children in their communities.

Overall Goals While each workshop has its own goals, there are some overarching goals that each facilitator should understand.

Establish a sense of ownership for the projects. As CAFO is focused on connecting and equipping local churches and NGOs, our hope is for the local champions to embrace the ownership of that task, as well as have responsibility for helping create the resources to accomplish that task.

Share the burden of resourcing projects with local champions. While most funding for orphan care ministries has traditionally come from Western entities, this is not sustainable. Local networks must take responsibility to resource their own mission. These projects require the majority of human resources to come from within the local networks, and some will also require fundraising responsibility from local networks.

Develop leadership and project management capabilities within local leaders. These workshops demonstrate how to work with groups and allow everyone a voice and a part in the prioritization. While we may not specifically identify this as “leadership training/development,” this is exactly what we’re doing by modeling methods and group facilitation skills.

Define key priorities that will be developed by network leadership into plans for implementation. We suggest a smaller, follow up meeting after Collaborate+ to compile findings and make plans to document data and information learned/gathered during the forum, and develop strategies for local implementation

Leadership Roles Many of the leaders of local networks are Inspirers - they are good at gathering other people together and sharing a common vision. This has resulted in the emergence of movements in nations around the world. However, some networks have plateaued in their development, and don’t seem to be able to get beyond raising awareness. Essentially, local Christians become aware that churches should do something about the local orphan crisis, and are even told about adoption/fostering, but there are no significant plans for “what’s next.” We recommend Collaborate+ attendees complete the Three Roles of a Network Leader course. This course allows attendees to identify themselves as an Inspirer, Equipper, or Connector. The collaboration of all three types of leaders is necessary for successful networks. To enroll in this course visit cafo.org/global/courses. It may be completed in one sitting.

Discussion Group Seating The Collaborate+ audience should be separated into small groups of roughly 10-20 people for each workshop. If your overall attendance is less than 60, you may want to decrease the size of these groups. Remember, this is your forum. You know your audience best, and we encourage you to make adjustments as needed to best fit your group. Your role as a facilitator will be to lead those discussions to work through brainstorming, discussion, and prioritization of the key strategies/ideas. Collaborate+ attendees will be assigned to specific small groups when they register. The seating for each workshop will be different: •

Suggested seating for Engaging Local Cultures Small-Group Seating by geographical region (Depending on the geographical scope of your forum, seating could be arranged by province, state, city, neighborhood, etc. Please seat attendees in whichever manner best fits your group)

The attendees should receive a card that identifies which small group they should sit with for each Workshop Discussion session. They should be reminded to sit in their assigned groups as they enter the room for those sessions. For other sessions on the agenda, they may sit wherever they please.

Engaging Local Cultures

Engaging Local Cultures (suggested time: 1.5 hours)

This workshop is intended to discuss key issues when engaging local cultures within your context: Identify a few indigenous cultures in your region for your network to engage. What are the TOP 5 ways for your network to embrace the local leaders of these cultures? Seating: By Geographical Region

Workshop Setup “Engaging Local Cultures” was presented before this workshop time. At the end of the LEARN session, the attendees were encouraged to pray and think about the following workshop goals, and come to the DISCUSS session with their top suggestions for the challenge statements. Each attendee identified their Geographical Region on their registration and have been placed into breakout groups based on their location. After the introduction, the meeting will be divided into small breakout groups based on these regions. You will be facilitating ONE of these small groups.

At the beginning of this session, the emcee will announce the following setup for this workshop: In the LEARN session, you have learned important principles to consider as networks seek to embrace local cultures and engage cultural leaders. We’re going to take time right now to discuss these principles and determine the top strategies that you think should be applied within your organizations/churches to embrace local cultures and engage local leaders.

Workshop Goals 1. Goals for Groups: • Identify a few indigenous cultures in your region for your network to engage. • What are the TOP 5 ways for your network to embrace the local leaders of these cultures? • Model an example of group brainstorming and prioritization to engage small groups and develop consensus.

Workshop Process After the the leader provides a brief overview of the workshop, the facilitators will begin working with groups.

1. Workshop Premise: The Facilitator should restate the workshop premise in their own words and make sure everyone understands the concept.

2. Facilitation: The Facilitator will explain the specific task of their group (as defined below), assign key roles (such as scribe and timekeeper), and facilitate the conversation toward tangible ideas.

3. Brainstorming Technique (1 Hour): • Tools needed: good supply of 5x7 colored card stock paper; poster markers; large supply of sticker; tape • Begin by praying silently for several minutes, asking the Lord to make clear His desire for these topics. • Select two writers to write on the card stock • Ask participants for ideas; ask writers to put one idea per card stock, and place it on the wall/table within the “taped frame.”

• As the ideas (5 – 10) emerge, the facilitator will ask the scribe to write the idea as a short phrase on the card stock sheet. • Facilitator, using the help of the leaders, will categorize the ideas (if necessary), grouping similar concepts together. From this point, the facilitator will open the discussion to allow interactions, pros/ cons or each idea.

Vote on Top 5 Ideas • Give each participant a sheet of stickers with ONLY 10 stickers. • A count will be taken of the stickers on each of the card stock sheets – the top 5 will be presented as most significant as decided by the group.

4. Presentation • Each group will decide on a presenter or two to stand up and present their results to the whole Collaborate group. • Each group will decide on a presenter or two to stand up and present their results to the whole Collaborate group.

Suggested Project Deliverable: Post-event network leaders should meet to compile data and develop a plan for developing and engaging local cultures in their region. They will produce a professionally designed document that explains the results of discussions and identifies how churches and/or NGOs could implement the concepts locally. Thank you for agreeing to facilitate a group discussion during Collaborate+! These discussions are a key component of Collaborate+, and we deeply appreciate your willingness to serve and prepare for them.

Facilitator Receipt and Acceptance I hereby acknowledge receipt of the Collaborate+ Workshops Facilitators Guide. I have read, understand and agree to facilitate this group discussion to the best of my ability. It is my understanding that I am facilitating the following session: Engaging Local Cultures Signature Printed Name Date

GLOBAL network cafo.org/global/collaborate-plus/